PW: Allworth Press Licenses Content to Web Startup

Allworth Press, a New York City publisher of professional and self-help titles, has signed a licensing agreement with MyCounsel.com that gives the Internet start-up exclusive online rights to 10 of Allworth's bestselling consumer and small-business law titles. MyCounsel, which expects to launch within weeks, is a consumer and small-business law Web site.

Allworth founder Tad Crawford told PW that while he has been approached by a number of other sites to license his book content, he took the deal with MyCounsel for several reasons: because "they wanted a number of titles, are interested in an ongoing relationship, have a quality site and the price was right." Allworth received a one-time flat fee under the agreement, and MyCounsel has the option of renewing the deal for two additional years.

MyCounsel will load the books' content into a database that users will be able to search by keywords. Users will then be able to download the information; the name of the book from which the content was taken will also appear, and customers can order the book directly from Allworth's own Web site.